Every week, my awesome fiance, Scott takes my baby bump pictures and I’m so thankful for it because I just don’t have the motivation to do it on my own. So this week for Photo Friday I thought I would post a fun outtake from our Week 26 shoot!
Here is me and my cat, Lilith. Photograph by Scott, edited by me.
Something peaceful amidst the chaos of my mind and goals.
Yup. that’s the conclusion I’ve come to recently.
Absolutely insane. I have less than 100 days until the due date of my first baby (holy crap!) and for some reason, I’ve recently gotten the drive to do a bunch of projects! Things that I need to finish before baby and things that will last all year or longer.
Okay, so are you read for a list?
-Completely clean up my digital life. This includes but is not limited to: sorting through all my bookmarks (an insane amount), cleaning out my google reader of blogs I never have time for and keeping only those I love, getting my inboxes organized (includes deleting the 3 old email addresses I never ever use), unfriend people on facebook who haven’t talked to me ever on there(keep just close friends and family), back up all files onto cds, organize my external hard drive, back up all files onto external hard drive, clean up twitter(follow only awesome people). I think that’s it for this category…
-Project 366. One photo a day all year.
-Photo Friday? I’m iffy about this project now…I can’t decide if I should just share my project 366 each week or take a whole set of photos just for this?
-Secret project. Needs to be worked on at least monthly if not weekly.
-Baby bump weekly photos/update
-Weekly baby photos after baby is born until he turns a month or two and then
-Monthly baby photos
-Pregnancy photo album. Includes writing Dear Baby letters, baby bump pictures and other pictures/updates. (I’m thinking about including pictures/updates from the pregnancy in baby’s 1 year book instead. Any mamas out there with other ideas/tell me what you’ve done.)
-Finding Water by Julia Cameron (complete before baby?!! uh…yes)
-Encourage my fiance write a book (before baby?! yes)
-Blog 3+ times a week…including a better schedule which includes a monthly diy/tutorial (I’m so bad at these but I want to be better), a monthly Personal Truths and Reflections post (these are hard, emotionally and time consuming to write), organizing guest posts and monthly Tips posts(remember my weekly tips? I liked them, but not weekly.)
And my biggest “to-do” which is also going to be a big life change and hard but exciting in so so many ways:
-Like a Bird Empire. Yup. Sounds intense, I know. It’s going to be awesome and I’m excited. If you want to know more, or help me out with getting it started, let me know.
I think that’s it?
Except in addition to all of my creative projects…
We’re moving 500 miles in less than 1 months time, maybe a little less. ha! oh…it gets better. We’re moving without Scott having a job. We’ve been planning to move sometime early this year (before baby) and live with my parents for a while anyway but Scott hasn’t found a new job yet and we’re getting a good amount of money back on our tax refund and just decided to go for it. I have like 20 days to pack up my entire house. I guess a quick move is better than moving when I’m 8+ months pregnant right? The drive will be hell. It’s a 10 hour drive. That’s not including the fact that we’ll have to stop every hour or so because I have to pee, a lot. Oh and we will have 2 very grumpy cats packed into the car with us as well. Fun times. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I know it all sounds like so much to do and like I said, I must be absolutely crazy to take all of this on the year I become a mother for the first time. But ya know what? There’s no better time for me to do it. I’ve been sitting around doing nothing for a year and a half, hoping and trying to figure out what I want with my life. And this pregnancy has kind of kicked my butt and drive and inspiration in to gear it seems. Maybe because I’m finally figuring out exactly what I want my life to be, and maybe because I want the best life for my child so I need to make myself and my own life better first. Whatever the reason, even if I’m absolutely insane…I couldn’t be happier with my plans right now.
Are you insane too? What are you plans and dreams and goals for the year?
This week baby is about 13.5inches long and at about 1.5lbs is the size of a rutabaga! (according to the babycenter app on my phone.)
The biggest news this week is that we are officially UNDER 100 DAYS UNTIL MY DUE DATE! What?! I can’t believe it! We are at 94 days and counting, people! Only 14 weeks left. I’m getting so nervous as the number goes down. I keep telling Scott to stop telling me because it freaks me out haha
In other news…Almost every night when I go to bed and lie down, I say, “I won’t be able to sleep on my stomach soon.” I’ve always been a stomach sleeper and obviously when you’re huge and pregnant you really can’t. But until it becomes uncomfortable it’s not a problem for the baby. For the most part, I can still get comfy but there are days when I lie on my stomach and the baby will not stop kicking so I turn to my side and he stops. It’s cute.
This week baby is the size of an English hothouse cucumber at about 14 inches long and weighs close to 1.75lbs! (according to the babycenter app on my phone.)
Not too much new going on this week. I’ve been nauseous a couple of days and I’m really hoping it’s not pregnancy related. I’ve heard it’s common to get nauseous again in the 3rd trimester and I really really hope that doesn’t happen to me! I could not handle that again right now.
My pants are finally starting to get tighter and I think I’ll have to buy some maternity pants soon! I hear they are real comfy though, so it should be okay.
ps- did you know that my hair really isn’t curly? I really wish it was, but it’s straight and boring. I almost always put it into braids after I shower so it’s nice and curly and pretty the next day!
Check out the past baby bump progress:
Week 5 & Week 21
Week 23 & Week 24
Like a Bird is now listed on Top Baby Blogs! It would be so great if you vote for Like a Bird, all it takes is 2 little clicks. Just click on the banner below or the banner in my sidebar to the right.
“Defining Me: Moments and Events that Shaped Who I Am.” is a monthly guest post series on Like a Bird where one blogger (or artist, blog reader, crafter, etsian, etc) will share events, moments and trials they have gone through to shape who they are today.
This week, we have our first post from my fiance, Scott. Drafter, writer, gamer, animal lover, dreamer. If I haven’t seen the entire world by the time I’m dead, then what was the point of life? People, places and all other things out there, I want to experience. Mysteries and adventure could sustain me better than any food I’ve tried yet. You can find me, sparingly, at twitter.
————————————————————————-
Photograph by Kendra Kantor
Today, I have the opportunity to once more contribute to something so dear to her heart. I always love helping where I can. There is almost an unlimited number of events in my life which have made me who I am, so it is difficult to select only a few. So without getting too depressing here, I’d say two of the largest such moments that defined me had to be the day my (late) father brought home our first computer and the day I bought Wizard’s First Rule.
-Getting that computer pretty much set me on the path of who I am today.
It was an old Acer desktop unit that ran windows 3 or something, if even that. I remember some silly little “game” where I was a detective and had to rummage around the Acer offices to learn more about them. Ever since then I have never been without a computer, or technology of any sort. Every incarnation of Game Boy, several console systems, a laptop since windows 3.11, even my profession grew from knowing computers so well.
My mother was a programmer in the 80′s, so I wasn’t sheltered from the more complicated aspects of computers and through school I was top of the class in computer classes. This built confidence in the one thing I could do right. They kinda took over my life completely for a while, until the second of my moments, but I’ll get to that. Today, I can work with any programming language to some extent, even if I’ve never seen them before, and I’ve even taken my laptop apart to fix it. Computers are just part of my life now, an irreplaceable chunk of my soul.
-As for the second moment, it seems more simple, more mundane, buying a book? Yes, simply that, buying a single book.
It wasn’t even full price, the thing was marked down to like 5 bucks or something. But it changed my life in ways unimaginable. For one thing, I actually had something new and exciting to introduce people to. Before this, I kinda just went with the flow, letting others dictate my life and what I did. I was little more than scenery. Next, I got my first real taste of philosophy from it, I had been kinda a deep thinker before hand, but mostly directionless. The rules throughout the story resonated with me, helped me to shape my thoughts for once. Of course, there’s also the time I joined a forum devoted to the series.
Kinda lame I guess, but it was the first time I really reached out. And got a response. Online family and friends followed, people actually liked having me around, I found a place I belonged. Even more lame, but that’s where I was back then, severe depression, suicidal tendencies, I really was just going through the motions. That book gave me some small urge to try, and it paid off. I was still depressed and all that, but I had reasons now, small though they may be. And finally the créme de la créme, if I may be allowed to use such an old expression. I met her, she who now writes this blog. That was almost a decade ago now, and thinking back it amazes me everything that came from simply buying that stupid book. Friends, family, a woman, a baby, and a life. Who knows how I would have ended up if I hadn’t bought that book. I probably should reread it someday, see if it has the same impact, and more than that I really should finish the series. Heh, like most of the fan base, I just couldn’t make it, I tried and toughed it out until nearly the end. But for all the initial volume did for me, I suppose owe it another shot.
Now these two moments really did help shape me in ways much greater than perhaps the day I did not make school play (as far as I know anyway). But there could easily be even greater events that defined me, after all the smallest of choices (like buying one book over another) can alter everything in ways unimaginable. Until the story of our life is written in its entirety, there is no knowing where the next chapter will take us, or even the next paragraph.
————————————————————————-
If you’re interesting in writing a post for the “Defining Me” series please email me kendra[at]likeabirdblog[dot]com or use the contact form.
Don’t forget to check out my personal companion series: Personal Truths and Reflections
We haven’t gotten too much snow this year. There has been some light coatings and then it’s gone in a few hours. We’ve had one winter storm watch but even that snow was gone (and it was back in the 50′s) by the end of the week! Last night it snowed a bit and right tonight until tomorrow it’s supposed to snow more. I like snow, to a point. I think it’s pretty but I’m kind of over winter already.
I used the picture above for Day 19 for my Project 366.
ps- the winners of the journal workshop giveaway are: Kristin and Lindsay Drya! Congrats ladies! I’ll be in contact with you by the end of next week.
